Unconventional Greats discussion
Literary Depression
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Little Women was pretty depressing. And The Yearling. It seems like animal stories always have to end with the animal dying. What's up with that?

To me, "sad" is not the same as "depressing." A book with a sad ending does not automatically depress me. Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities" was pretty depressing, but it was a great read.
For most depressing, I'd have to go with something English, and probably Victorian, like Wuthering Heights. Which I LOVE. ;-)
I was depressed when I read The Devil Wears Prada, and realized I could never have back the time I wasted on it.
I would agree that a sad ending does not translate directly to depressing. I think that it is POINTLESS saddness that really gets me down. Ptolemy's Gate is a good example of a very sad ending that is not at all depressing. So are Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, The Killer Angels, The Watch on the Rhein, and Red Storm Rising - which are all amongst my all time favorites.
On the other hand in E-of-E, for example, I was constantly wanting to scream, "No! You idiot! Don't do that!" and they always did and it always turned out badly and everything always went into the crapper along with my outlook. Yech!
On the other hand in E-of-E, for example, I was constantly wanting to scream, "No! You idiot! Don't do that!" and they always did and it always turned out badly and everything always went into the crapper along with my outlook. Yech!

Sorrows of Young Werther, Madame Bovary, Therese Requin, Crime & Punishment, and a few others with only Anna Kerrennina standing out as teh bright spot of hope in a semester of dark and gritty dreariness


SPOILER BELOW
I mean how can you get more depressing than small children hanging themselves and their baby siblings because they think their parents don't love them.



Because I like horses, my parents encouraged me to read it ... and what a horrible story! A lonely, sensitive boy wants a horse of his own to be a firend and companion, gets a pony who he loves desperately ... and then it gets sick, and dies.
Oh wait, that's not the end!
The *very next day* is his first day of school. He gets on the bus, sits down next to another boy ... and tada! Problem solved.
Why mourn the loss of a beloved pet when you can make friends instantly with your seat-mate on the bus?
Hate, hate, hate Steinbeck. Hate, hate, hated the Grapes of Wrath, too ... but The Red Pony just wore me down. That's what people think makes a good kids book? What message is that?
Don't love animals, because you can make friends with real people? Ugh.
Sorry for the rant.


to me one of the most depressing books ever is a fine balance by rohinton mistry. and although it held my interest to the very end and was easy to read, at the end i just cried. it just got me down.

all utterly "make me want to slit my wrists" depressing

I have never read the red pony , but I saw the movie when I was little and was absolutly HORRIFIED ! Talk about scaring little children !
I read "the return of the native" by Thomas Hardy and have writen him off as sad/depressing.

Sure some points are well made in the book, but ugh... did it have to come from such a sad and twisted chain of events? It's true that Sue Miller captures detail like no other, but that makes it worse because you feel the gritty realism of it all.
The main character meets an old acquaintance, some old skeletons surfaces, an old flame ignited... a stupid move or two were made and BAM!! a family is ruined... it's like opening a can of worms... and then worms EVERYWHERE!!!
Books mentioned in this topic
The Devil Wears Prada (other topics)The Road (other topics)
Where the Red Fern Grows (other topics)
Wuthering Heights (other topics)
For me it is a toss up between Where the Red Fern Grows and East of Eden.